Vacation 2.0

One of the hottest trends in leisure travel over the last decade is taking a vacation from . . . vacations. That is, if you define a vacation as a getaway by a pool or a lake or a beach with a good book, good friends and maybe some colorful drinks with umbrellas.

"Vacation 2.0," if you will, still offers exotic lands, but involves volunteer work, typically at least several hours a day. Hence the term "voluntourism." A survey conducted last December by the travel web site Travelocity-just in time for all those New Year's resolutions-found that 13 percent of some 1,000 respondents were planning a type of volunteer vacation in 2009.

The key, of course, is ensuring that those good intentions become something a bit more tangible. "Travelocity is hoping to turn these yearly pledges into a life-changing experience as opposed to a soon-forgotten promise," the surveyors noted. "By applying for a Change Ambassador grant through Travelocity's Travel for Good program, grant recipients have the opportunity to accomplish all of the popular New Year's resolutions. . . while receiving a $5,000 grant to offset the cost of their trips."

After all, many of Travelocity's clients, especially younger people, generally can't afford the $2,000 or $3,000 fees typically required of volunteers (money that helps fund the organization's local presence, or scientific research, or the materials to help rebuild a devastated community). Two $5,000 grants are awarded each quarter.

"I think there's this longing to connect in a deeper way than the typical tourist, guidebook vacation," says Natasha Carvell, director of Travel for Good, the three-year-old, employee-launched program at Travelocity. "People want to get off the beaten path. They want to have an authentic experience. They want to experience the people who actually live in a community, get out and meet the locals, and give back."

One such recipient, Holly Oldham, spent a month in Tanzania in June 2008 after finishing the school year as a middle school language arts teacher in Dacula, Georgia. Her host organization, New Rochelle, New York-based Cross-Cultural Solutions, arranged for housing with some two dozen other volunteers and placed her as an English teacher, tutoring teenagers at the equivalent of a vocational college.

"I'd always wanted to travel abroad, and specifically Africa, but I'd never had the opportunity," says Oldham, thrilled that the learning flowed both ways. "The students taught me Swahili. I think I still know about 20 words. They were so interested to learn about our culture and anything I could tell them." She had afternoons free to explore the community and interact with residents and shopkeepers, one of whom invited Oldham and another volunteer to dinner in her home.

Oldham's Tanzania stay included a three-day safari. "It was so beautiful. It felt like we were in The Lion King," she says, adding: "I learned about myself-that I'll always be a teacher in some way. And I made friends for the rest of my life, people in Tanzania and other volunteers, people who were also open to new things and new ideas in general. You learn a lot from other people."

Another reason for the upsurge in volunteer vacations is clearly the growth of organizations dedicated to matching volunteers with philanthropic getaways. "Our book lists 150 such organizations," says Doug Cutchins, co-author of the 10th edition of Volunteer Vacations: Short-Term Adventures That Will Benefit You and Others (Chicago Review Press, $18.95). "If you look back 20 years, virtually none of these groups existed."

One that did, Global Volunteers, based in St. Paul, Minnesota, began in 1984 with nine volunteers. Back then, says co-founder Bud Philbrook, basically only nonprofits such as Earthwatch, Habitat for Humanity and church groups were sending people internationally. "By the late '80s we were up to 50 volunteers. Last year we sent out 2,400," says Philbrook, who notes a big swing to younger volunteers. "We're seeing a lot of people in their 20s who are between jobs. That's their plan. They're in a job for two years and want to build their résumé or get more life experience." But the fastest-growing group, he says, is under 18—a segment that often volunteers right along with their parents or grandparents.

Blessed with summers off and semester breaks, high school and college students have both the time for volunteer vacations and, in many cases, added reasons to stamp their passports in a new land. College-bound volunteers invariably tap their overseas experiences for their application essays. Once in college, many students find volunteer vacations offer a helpful, real-world glimpse of a possible career path from a potential major.

Sana Hashmi, a senior at the University of Georgia majoring in biology and religion, comforted pediatric oncology patients in a hospital in Salvador, Brazil, in the morning and spent afternoons with other young cancer patients in a support house. "You don't have to speak the language to give a hug or to hold someone's hand," she says. Hashmi has applied to medical school, eying pediatric oncology as a possible specialty. "This experience comes up in every interview," she says.

Kam Santos, director of communications at Cross-Cultural Solutions, says her organization also offers character references for job seekers, including those who are changing careers. "We can offer those references because our staff gets to know the volunteers really [well]," she says. "This type of experience builds character and is inspiring and life-changing in so many ways, because of the introspective time that you have as a volunteer. When you're giving to others you tend to learn a lot about yourself. Additionally, when you're put into another culture and adjusting to language differences and learning about different value systems, it's a really formative experience."

Hannah Graae, a paralegal in Washington, D.C., spent two weeks in Barbados while still a high school student after signing on with Earthwatch to help protect endangered sea turtles. "Most of the work was at night," she recalls. "We walked the beaches from 7 p.m. until 4 a.m. The most stimulating thing for me was not just being an observer, but really getting my hands wet—getting a feel for what fieldwork is like and what being a researcher is like. There was a turtle hotline. We'd go when people called and help take care of the turtles. We measured them and counted the eggs. We also had to move their eggs if the nest was in a dangerous place. I already had an interest in wildlife, but this pushed it over the edge."

The experience helped Graae narrow her list of desired colleges to those with wildlife or marine programs. She ended up at the University of Wisconsin, where she double-majored in wildlife ecology and conservation biology and minored in environmental studies. Moreover, her Earthwatch stint gave her "the courage to study abroad." She expanded her horizons by taking marine biology courses in Brisbane, Australia. Should Graae go on to law school, she'd focus on environmental law. But more and more, she's thinking of grad school for marine biology—a passion originally kindled by her voluntourism experience with sea turtles.

"It sounds cliché, I know," Graae says, "but it changed my life."

GETTING STARTED

Cross-Cultural Solutions: Founded in 1995. Opportunities include working in orphanages, day care centers, schools, clinics and hospitals in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. Info: www.crossculturalsolutions.org.

Earthwatch Institute: Founded in 1971. Projects include archaeology, community development, land and water conservation, and wide-ranging animal research. Info: www.earthwatch.org.

Global Volunteers: Founded in 1984. Offers some 170 community and rural development programs, plus social justice and youth initiatives year round on five continents. Info: www.globalvolunteers.org.

These and dozens more host organizations are indexed by project, location, type, duration and cost in the aforementioned 10th edition of Volunteer Vacations: Short-Term Adventures That Will Benefit You and Others, by Bill McMillon, Doug Cutchins and Anne Geissinger.—J.G.